July 14, 2012

Sweet Corn Cob Jelly

Place the corn cobs and bay leaf in a heavy bottomed 6 quart Dutch oven. Fill with water. Bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 30 minutes. Strain into a large measuring cup. It should measure about 4 cups. Pour the liquid back into the Dutch oven. Add the sugar and pectin and bring to a rolling boil. Boil until it "sets" into a jelly-like texture, just a few minutes. Ladle into jars, leaving a 1/4 inch headspace and process 15 minutes using the hot water method.

Yield: 6 8-oz jars

*I used cobs leftover from making thingslikethis. Not cobs I had eaten off of or were previously boiled/grilled. Because I am not an expert corn cutter-offer, there was some corn left on the cobs (mostly half kernels) which added flavor.

My thoughts:

Until I went to Nashville in May, I had only heard of corn cob jelly. Then I was served it with some fried green tomatoes and it was so good, I had to make it myself. I mostly came across recipes using seed corn but the jelly I had was definitely made with sweet corn so I came up with this recipe. I added the bay leaf to enhance the light corn flavor and I am glad I did. It cut the sweetness a bit and added even more of an herbal note.

I called for a 6 quart Dutch oven. After adding the cobs, you fill the rest of it with water. Since your cobs may be larger or smaller than mine, the amount of water will obviously vary. Each time when I made this, I filled the pot and once it was reduced, I ended up with about 4 cups. I do not see the need (or do I feel comfortable doing so) to give an exact amount for the initial fill with water.

Interesting! I saw a similar thing on a cupcake blog but theirs was more like a homemade corn syrup have you seen it? I had never heard of this stuff, but now I've seen it twice in the last month. Crazy!